1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a refrigerator with an ice feeding unit and, more particularly, to a refrigerator with an ice feeding unit which reduces operating noise of the ice feeding unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large-capacity conventional refrigerator includes an ice making unit to make ice cubes, and an ice container to hold the ice cubes made in the ice making unit. The refrigerator has, at a door thereof, an ice discharging path and an ice dispensing unit to allow a user to take the ice cubes from the ice container without opening the door. Further, an ice feeding unit is provided at a predetermined position in a cooling compartment of the refrigerator so as to feed the ice cubes from the ice container to the ice discharging path.
As shown in FIG. 1, the ice feeding unit of the conventional refrigerator includes a coiled feeding shaft 2 which is installed in an ice container 1 to feed ice cubes, a guide cylinder 3 which guides the ice cubes, a spiral blade 4 which is provided in the guide cylinder 3 to push the ice cubes, and an ice crusher 5 which crushes the ice cubes guided by the spiral blade 4.
The ice feeding unit also has a drive motor 6 to rotate the feeding shaft 2, and an outlet control unit to open or close an outlet 1a of the ice container 1 which is adjacent to the ice crusher 5. The outlet control unit includes a control member 7, a connection rod 8, and a solenoid drive unit 9. The control member 7 is rotatably installed at a position around the outlet 1a of the ice container 1. The connection rod 8 is rotatably mounted at a predetermined position of the ice container 1 to operate the control member 7, and extends from a position around the outlet 1a to a position opposite to the outlet 1a in a horizontal direction. The solenoid drive unit 9 is provided at a rear portion of the ice container 1 to be adjacent to the drive motor 6, and functions to rotate the connection rod 8 at a predetermined range, thus operating the control member 7. As shown in FIG. 2, when a movable part 9a of the solenoid drive unit 9 reciprocates within a predetermined range, a first eccentric part 8a provided at a rear end of the connection rod 8 rotates in a predetermined range to rotate the connection rod 8. At this time, a second eccentric part 8b which is opposite to the first eccentric part 8a, operates the control member 7, thus opening or closing the outlet 1a of the ice container 1.
However, the conventional ice feeding unit has a problem that there may occur a clicking sound whenever the solenoid drive unit 9 is operated to actuate the control member 7, since the control member 7 is operated by the solenoid drive unit 9 which reciprocates by electricity. Thus, there may be noise due to interference between the movable part 9a of the solenoid drive unit 9 and the connection rod 8 when the movable part 9a of the solenoid drive unit 9 is operated.